Kurt Cobain and DS-1

[whyuforcemetosignup]

Hi guys, it has been reported that Kurt Cobain has been using DS-1 up to Nevermind and DS-2 during In Utero. Also reported he wld rarely use a Sans Amp in his set up.

However, playing with the DS-1... it just sounds so weak.. How did he actually get that distortion with this pedal. Do u guys think he modded it? Pls comment and advice what I should do.

thks

 

[blueprintstudios]

at first i would have told you "oh the live sound can just blast the amps or run the guitar through many many cabs to make it sound phat/powerful live" but since you mentioned the albums etc. I can only tell you a better guess is "power of mixing" if not i'm not sure which song you're referring to, but recording process guitarists usually record multiple tracks to phatten the recording.

then again he may do the above + mod the ds-1. or the reports were incorrect. you're more than 10 years late on this question. should have asked him when he's alive hehehe


10¢ worth

 

[wy1991]

if i'm not wrong, he uses a modded one. probably a keeley modded one. Steve Vai uses a Keeley modded one

 

[widdly]

Steve Albini recorded In Utero and he's an analogue fiend. So there would be the pedal, the amp, the microphone, the desk and the tape all adding some kind of distortion.

The desk is a 24 track neve.... good luck finding one of those!

There is also a story that Cobain used a Fender Twin Reverb with a bunch of broken valves.

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

if i'm not wrong, he uses a modded one. probably a keeley modded one. Steve Vai uses a Keeley modded one

dude, keeley was not around, at least as a biz when nirvana was the rage... and kurt is well known for not being too picky about gear...

The ideal of modding pedals, boutique pedals aint exactly too much a hot thing back in the early 90s..

the ability of a cranked amp at high volume and a mild overdrive pedal often resulted in more power than what ever mod in pedals or small amp we are using able to give us

imho

 

[marlonmm]

check this site. www.kurtsequipment.com

DS-1 is just one of the ingredients in the formula. His tone might not just be bacause of his DS-1 alone. I believe he also used a more powerful pickups (SD JB? DiMarzio Super Distortion??) which will affect the output of DS-1.

guitargeek also mentioned that older DS-1's distortion are smoother than the "transistorised" sounding distortion of the current DS-1s.